Exercise - Burning 6000 calories a week
Eleanor_1986
Posts: 14 Member
Hi guys
I would like to create a calorie deficit primarily through exercise. Any suggestions for what exercise I can do and frequency to achieve this?
I haven't exercised since before the pandemic but when i did: i loved strength training, despised cardio with a passion (although i will do it to keep my heart healthy). I have a dodgy knee so prefer to avoid too much jumping or long distance running. Don't mind exercise classes such as spinning, body pump, boxercise or hot yoga. I don't swim.
If it helps, i have access to a gym and a personal trainer.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to reply!
I would like to create a calorie deficit primarily through exercise. Any suggestions for what exercise I can do and frequency to achieve this?
I haven't exercised since before the pandemic but when i did: i loved strength training, despised cardio with a passion (although i will do it to keep my heart healthy). I have a dodgy knee so prefer to avoid too much jumping or long distance running. Don't mind exercise classes such as spinning, body pump, boxercise or hot yoga. I don't swim.
If it helps, i have access to a gym and a personal trainer.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to reply!
1
Replies
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6000 calories a week, for most people, is around 12 hours of decently hard exercising a week.
I burn around that, but it takes me 7 pretty brutally hard sessions by most standards. I do cardio 6 times a week and lift 2 X a week. One is where I lift and use a rowing machine doing HIIT for an hour. I've been training for 15 years to get to the point of burning that many calories in 7 or so workouts a week.
IMHO, saying I'm going to burn 6000 calories a week to lose weight is setting yourself up for failure. If you tried to do 6000 calories this week in exercise and you haven't exercised since Covid, you're going to likely injure yourself.
Why not ease back into it? The only way I could possibly burn 6000 calories in a week is because I spent 10 years very, very slowly (incrementally) easing my way into more exercise. And I'm consistent as hell. When I started jogging (and that's being kind with what I did), it used to take me an hour to burn 400 calories. I regularly burn 650 to 750 or 800 now on my "easy" days. But understand, that takes years to develop that kind of cardio stamina.
I have a very dodgy knee too. Was told 16 years ago I needed a full replacement. Rowing is easy on the knee. So is stationary bike and (some) ellipticals -- ellipticals can hurt my knee too. Climbers are great. So are Stairmasters.
If you really want to burn calories, start slow -- build back gently. Don't go too hard or you'll get discouraged and quit.9 -
It sounds like you are trying to lose 2 lbs. a week without changing your diet. That is very rapid weight loss unless you are more than 50 lbs. overweight and not easy to sustain. I think you overestimate the burn you get with exercise. Weights don't burn many calories. Nor does yoga. Cardio does burn more calories, but is hard for a beginner to do for long enough to burn significant calories. For me to burn 1000 calories a day, (assuming one day of rest each week) would require 10 miles a day of running or 20 miles a day hiking or 3+ hours a day on the stationary bike. Low impact aerobics would require at least 2 hours a day, probably more. That is a lot of exercise. I've been running and walking daily for years and I wouldn't want to do it.
And one issue I've found with using exercise as a primary means of weight loss is that when you get injured (and odds are, you will get injured if you push yourself that hard) you haven't developed eating habits that will allow you to maintain the weight loss without the exercise, so you quickly gain back the weight you lost (and then some). You would do better to focus on cutting your calories and increase your exercise gradually to a level that is sustainable so that the exercise allows you to eat a few more calories but isn't necessary to keep the weight off.5 -
Really not enough info about your history to give the advice you probably want but from what you stated...
I would resistance train with appropriate intensity, volume, and rep ranges. If your knee is "dodgy" because of recent trauma, I would seek medical advice. If you claim it is "dodgy" for any other reason, I would want more info as these are usual remedied with appropriate training by a experienced trainer, more than likely not a commercial gym trainer who unfortunately don't have the experience or knowledge for optimal results if any.
If you want to goal 6000 calories burned a week, I would highly recommend you not start anywhere near that level since you have been inactive for a long time.
I would strongly recommend utilizing proper load management as without it your injury risk increases substantially. I'm not trying to alarm you, but it's a mistake I see time and time again.
Feel free to add me as a friend. I'm not extremely social here anymore, but my page will be focused on a day or so to answer questions that you have for a professional experience coach, trainer, and athlete.3 -
Something not mentioned yet is that adding exercise into your routine can easily increase appetite. I personally am much more hungry days I train than days I don't. Managing to avoid eating more is going to take almost as much discipline as it will take to add that much exercise.6
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The classes you mention really aren't big calorie burners - they are also difficult to get somewhat reliable estimates for but very easy to get highly inflated ones!
Strength training is also a small calorie burner (but a very valuable use of exercise time especially when losing weight).
Overall the gym really isn't the place to burn that kind of number unless you have extraordinary determination and resistance to boredom.
If you are serious about building up to 6,000 exercise cals a week and have a dodgy knee (whatever that means) then cycling is the pretty obvious choice but depending on where you live if it's winter roughly 12 - 14 hours (guessing your future and not current fitness level here) may not be easy (or enjoyable).
Realistically I think you are not going to achieve that number consistently.
For comparison I've done 377 hours / 5,600 miles this year cycling and that's only just over an average of eight hours a week but I'm retired with lots of time to indulge my hobby and also eating at maintenance. I couldn't sustain that level of exercise and have a large calorie deficit for more than a few weeks.
I think if you want to eat at maintenance and use exercise to create a moderate deficit that is workable but I really don't think your plan will work without scaling back - a lot. Sorry!
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Eleanor_1986 wrote: »Hi guys
I would like to create a calorie deficit primarily through exercise. Any suggestions for what exercise I can do and frequency to achieve this?
I haven't exercised since before the pandemic but when i did: i loved strength training, despised cardio with a passion (although i will do it to keep my heart healthy). I have a dodgy knee so prefer to avoid too much jumping or long distance running. Don't mind exercise classes such as spinning, body pump, boxercise or hot yoga. I don't swim.
If it helps, i have access to a gym and a personal trainer.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to reply!
Not to burst your bubble, but I think you are substantially underestimating the level of time and effort it would take to burn 6000 calories per week and to do so on a consistent, regular basis. Also, as you've not been exercising for a couple of years, your current fitness level would be nowhere near where it would need to be for this kind of training. None of the things you mention are particularly big calorie burners...you would need to do a ton of cardiovascular work to achieve 6000 calories per week...probably in the 12 hours per week range every single week. Even when I was training for endurance cycling races and events and spending gobs of time wracking up the miles, I wasn't anywhere near 6000 calories per week. You also need to consider that life happens and injury happens.6 -
Well, if you have access to a personal trainer s/he would be my first port of call.
That said, burning 6k calories per week through exercise is a really tough ask.
My TDEE per day is 2300. I am a 5'10" female weighing 75kg. I exercise every day. A tough weight lifting session 4 times per week for an hour (plus another 45 mins or so spent on warm up, cool down and mobility work). I do 45 mins of boxing pad work with a PT once a week, 45 mins of general conditioning work once a week and the seventh day is normally high intensity cardio on the heavy bag for between 30 and 45 mins followed by mid intensity cardio like kettlebells or rowing for another 30 mins. As you can see, I spend a fair bit of time exercising, and my height and weight mean I burn a reasonable amount of calories. All of that said, my exercise burns on average 400 calories per day, so nowhere near 6,000 calories per week.5 -
OP, the folks who've responded have made some great suggestions while also giving you the "unvarnished truth".
While it is possible to burn 6000 calories/week, that is not a plan that is sustainable nor advisable for anyone who doesn't have a significant base built up. @Mike Pfirrman's response makes this point nicely. In a best case scenario, you get discouraged and quit, while a worst case outcome is injury. In either of those cases, you will suffer during the process.
Since most brief duration cardio classes would not generate the calorie burn you seek, then the alternative approach requires a lot of time. As @sijomial suggests, long distance cycling could provide a path to larger calorie expenditure, but that isn't an easy task. Eight hours of cycling time weekly is not where beginners start, and even as your fitness grows, so will your hunger.
Finally, I'll give you my specific calorie burns from two different weeks this past summer to illustrate the time commitment. (BTW, my focus is endurance, not weight loss)
Week of July 19-25, Total training time: 11hrs, 18min. Calories burned: 3047 on bike, 1681 on run, 848 during swim. Total: 5576 calories.
Week of Aug 9-15, Total training time: 14hrs, 15min. Calories burned: 4104 on bike, 1006 on run, 755 during swim. Total: 5865 calories.
So my two cents is that a focus on food intake, coupled with a moderate exercise program to start, will lead to an exercise habit that supports weight loss while improving your fitness. Good luck.
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Something not mentioned yet is that adding exercise into your routine can easily increase appetite. I personally am much more hungry days I train than days I don't. Managing to avoid eating more is going to take almost as much discipline as it will take to add that much exercise.
I'll second that.
Basically, you'll be pretty hungry and it'll be really hard to resist eating back a big chunk of those exercise calories. Without a (superhuman?) discipline, you'll get used to eating a lot. And then, when you don't exercise as much, while still eating the amount you've gotten used to, well, we know what'll happen.
Been there done that (and still doing that).
Oh 6000 calories is a looooong time exercising and it's not easy in the long run. Trust me 😁0 -
Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I asked for your advice so I am going to take it and go easy on the workouts to avoid burnout or injury!5
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MikePfirrman wrote: »6000 calories a week, for most people, is around 12 hours of decently hard exercising a week.
I burn around that, but it takes me 7 pretty brutally hard sessions by most standards. I do cardio 6 times a week and lift 2 X a week. One is where I lift and use a rowing machine doing HIIT for an hour. I've been training for 15 years to get to the point of burning that many calories in 7 or so workouts a week.
IMHO, saying I'm going to burn 6000 calories a week to lose weight is setting yourself up for failure. If you tried to do 6000 calories this week in exercise and you haven't exercised since Covid, you're going to likely injure yourself.
Why not ease back into it? The only way I could possibly burn 6000 calories in a week is because I spent 10 years very, very slowly (incrementally) easing my way into more exercise. And I'm consistent as hell. When I started jogging (and that's being kind with what I did), it used to take me an hour to burn 400 calories. I regularly burn 650 to 750 or 800 now on my "easy" days. But understand, that takes years to develop that kind of cardio stamina.
I have a very dodgy knee too. Was told 16 years ago I needed a full replacement. Rowing is easy on the knee. So is stationary bike and (some) ellipticals -- ellipticals can hurt my knee too. Climbers are great. So are Stairmasters.
If you really want to burn calories, start slow -- build back gently. Don't go too hard or you'll get discouraged and quit.
Turns out I vastly underestimated the amount of calories one can burn while exercising!! I’ll definitely start slow as suggested.
I actually love rowing intervals so I’ll incorporate those. Thank you.
5 -
You got really good advice, and you took it to heart. Things don't usually work so well here. For what it's worth, the kind of person who's able to learn from a disappointing truth (about how many calories are being burned, or other things) is usually the kind of person who has what it takes to be successful.6
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spiriteagle99 wrote: »It sounds like you are trying to lose 2 lbs. a week without changing your diet. That is very rapid weight loss unless you are more than 50 lbs. overweight and not easy to sustain. I think you overestimate the burn you get with exercise. Weights don't burn many calories. Nor does yoga. Cardio does burn more calories, but is hard for a beginner to do for long enough to burn significant calories. For me to burn 1000 calories a day, (assuming one day of rest each week) would require 10 miles a day of running or 20 miles a day hiking or 3+ hours a day on the stationary bike. Low impact aerobics would require at least 2 hours a day, probably more. That is a lot of exercise. I've been running and walking daily for years and I wouldn't want to do it.
And one issue I've found with using exercise as a primary means of weight loss is that when you get injured (and odds are, you will get injured if you push yourself that hard) you haven't developed eating habits that will allow you to maintain the weight loss without the exercise, so you quickly gain back the weight you lost (and then some). You would do better to focus on cutting your calories and increase your exercise gradually to a level that is sustainable so that the exercise allows you to eat a few more calories but isn't necessary to keep the weight off.
Yes the goal is 2lbs a week. I have a slow metabolism for various reasons which means that I find it difficult to lose weight by reducing calories. I started at 200lbs and have so far managed to lose 8lbs at a snail’s pace. I’m aiming for a total loss of 50 lbs to get me to my pre-pandemic weight so there’s a lot to go.
You have made a very good point about injury. I will focus on slowly building up my exercise as suggested and see how that goes.
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Really not enough info about your history to give the advice you probably want but from what you stated...
I would resistance train with appropriate intensity, volume, and rep ranges. If your knee is "dodgy" because of recent trauma, I would seek medical advice. If you claim it is "dodgy" for any other reason, I would want more info as these are usual remedied with appropriate training by a experienced trainer, more than likely not a commercial gym trainer who unfortunately don't have the experience or knowledge for optimal results if any.
If you want to goal 6000 calories burned a week, I would highly recommend you not start anywhere near that level since you have been inactive for a long time.
I would strongly recommend utilizing proper load management as without it your injury risk increases substantially. I'm not trying to alarm you, but it's a mistake I see time and time again.
Feel free to add me as a friend. I'm not extremely social here anymore, but my page will be focused on a day or so to answer questions that you have for a professional experience coach, trainer, and athlete.
Thank you for the advice and I will take you up on the offer to add you as a friend.
I think the dodgy knee might be to do with me being too heavy when it comes to jumping/running type activities and improper form when it comes to things like lunges.
I have actually struggled to find a trainer this time round as they seem to be inexperienced and, based on appearances only (which i am aware is not always the right approach) don't seem to follow their own training plans.0 -
Lots of great comments and advice here. Good luck, the only input I'll add is dont beat yourself up if you have an off day or even week, just reset your head and motivation then get back on it
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you cant out exercise a bad diet.
losing weight through exercise alone IS possible, but IS difficult (not to mention, as others have said, your hunger levels will increase), and then you run into the problem of MAINTAINING that loss....
What happens if you injure yourself, or have a health issue and can not work out, or for any other reason can't workout? what then? I wasn't able to work out for the majority of this year. Doctors orders. I have a slow metabolism (due to significant weight loss). I still lost 50 pounds this year on diet alone. So.... a slow metabolism is no excuse for diet not working.
Just some things to think about, that sometimes we dont ....1 -
Eleanor_1986 wrote: »MikePfirrman wrote: »6000 calories a week, for most people, is around 12 hours of decently hard exercising a week.
I burn around that, but it takes me 7 pretty brutally hard sessions by most standards. I do cardio 6 times a week and lift 2 X a week. One is where I lift and use a rowing machine doing HIIT for an hour. I've been training for 15 years to get to the point of burning that many calories in 7 or so workouts a week.
IMHO, saying I'm going to burn 6000 calories a week to lose weight is setting yourself up for failure. If you tried to do 6000 calories this week in exercise and you haven't exercised since Covid, you're going to likely injure yourself.
Why not ease back into it? The only way I could possibly burn 6000 calories in a week is because I spent 10 years very, very slowly (incrementally) easing my way into more exercise. And I'm consistent as hell. When I started jogging (and that's being kind with what I did), it used to take me an hour to burn 400 calories. I regularly burn 650 to 750 or 800 now on my "easy" days. But understand, that takes years to develop that kind of cardio stamina.
I have a very dodgy knee too. Was told 16 years ago I needed a full replacement. Rowing is easy on the knee. So is stationary bike and (some) ellipticals -- ellipticals can hurt my knee too. Climbers are great. So are Stairmasters.
If you really want to burn calories, start slow -- build back gently. Don't go too hard or you'll get discouraged and quit.
Turns out I vastly underestimated the amount of calories one can burn while exercising!! I’ll definitely start slow as suggested.
I actually love rowing intervals so I’ll incorporate those. Thank you.
If you do choose rowing, look closely as some rowing instuctions online. Dark Horse Rowing and Cassie Neimann are two of my favorites. I also saw you in the UK. There are a TON of rowing gyms and rowing clubs there. On the water rowing there is huge. I'm a member of an online (indoor) rowing club and nearly 70 percent of the members are from the UK. Rowing is one of those things that's not really intuitive. It seems like it is but it so isn't. If you start out with good form, it's much easier.
Don't give up on cardio just yet. I detested cardio when I started losing weight. I started out just walking and using stationary bike and light lifting -- simply as a means to get more calories to do my favorite thing -- eat!
A fantastic approach to exercise is just eat your calorie budget and use exercise as a cushion for weight loss and measuring mistakes. I used to try to eat back some of my exercise calories, but not all of them. Like half of them. What I found, over time, is because I became so consistent, I enjoyed pushing the cardio after a few years.
Now, I'm "one of those guys" that does cardio and is somewhat addicted to it. I get really cranky now when I don't do cardio. I enjoy weights too but not as much. But a great routine includes both and even (perhaps) some flexibility exercises as well.
While everyone is right that weight loss is primarily in the kitchen, I will tell you that maintenance is where exercise habits become more critical. Nearly everyone I know on here that is years into maintenance also exercises a lot. The National Weight Loss Registry (which is for people that have lost over 100 lbs and kept it off for years) did a survey a while back and what they figured out was the average time people spend exercising, who have kept weight loss off for years (and that number is only like 10% of people that drop the weight keep it off), is an hour a day. I lost around 100 lbs originally, so that's a number I shoot for -- roughly 6 or 7 hours a week. But that has to be something you organically build up to while being smart.2 -
Eleanor_1986 wrote: »spiriteagle99 wrote: »It sounds like you are trying to lose 2 lbs. a week without changing your diet. That is very rapid weight loss unless you are more than 50 lbs. overweight and not easy to sustain. I think you overestimate the burn you get with exercise. Weights don't burn many calories. Nor does yoga. Cardio does burn more calories, but is hard for a beginner to do for long enough to burn significant calories. For me to burn 1000 calories a day, (assuming one day of rest each week) would require 10 miles a day of running or 20 miles a day hiking or 3+ hours a day on the stationary bike. Low impact aerobics would require at least 2 hours a day, probably more. That is a lot of exercise. I've been running and walking daily for years and I wouldn't want to do it.
And one issue I've found with using exercise as a primary means of weight loss is that when you get injured (and odds are, you will get injured if you push yourself that hard) you haven't developed eating habits that will allow you to maintain the weight loss without the exercise, so you quickly gain back the weight you lost (and then some). You would do better to focus on cutting your calories and increase your exercise gradually to a level that is sustainable so that the exercise allows you to eat a few more calories but isn't necessary to keep the weight off.
Yes the goal is 2lbs a week. I have a slow metabolism for various reasons which means that I find it difficult to lose weight by reducing calories. I started at 200lbs and have so far managed to lose 8lbs at a snail’s pace. I’m aiming for a total loss of 50 lbs to get me to my pre-pandemic weight so there’s a lot to go.
You have made a very good point about injury. I will focus on slowly building up my exercise as suggested and see how that goes.
what makes you think you have a slow metabolism?1 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »
If you do choose rowing, look closely as some rowing instuctions online. Dark Horse Rowing and Cassie Neimann are two of my favorites. I also saw you in the UK. There are a TON of rowing gyms and rowing clubs there. On the water rowing there is huge. I'm a member of an online (indoor) rowing club and nearly 70 percent of the members are from the UK. Rowing is one of those things that's not really intuitive. It seems like it is but it so isn't. If you start out with good form, it's much easier.
Don't give up on cardio just yet. I detested cardio when I started losing weight. I started out just walking and using stationary bike and light lifting -- simply as a means to get more calories to do my favorite thing -- eat!
A fantastic approach to exercise is just eat your calorie budget and use exercise as a cushion for weight loss and measuring mistakes. I used to try to eat back some of my exercise calories, but not all of them. Like half of them. What I found, over time, is because I became so consistent, I enjoyed pushing the cardio after a few years.
Now, I'm "one of those guys" that does cardio and is somewhat addicted to it. I get really cranky now when I don't do cardio. I enjoy weights too but not as much. But a great routine includes both and even (perhaps) some flexibility exercises as well.
While everyone is right that weight loss is primarily in the kitchen, I will tell you that maintenance is where exercise habits become more critical. Nearly everyone I know on here that is years into maintenance also exercises a lot. The National Weight Loss Registry (which is for people that have lost over 100 lbs and kept it off for years) did a survey a while back and what they figured out was the average time people spend exercising, who have kept weight loss off for years (and that number is only like 10% of people that drop the weight keep it off), is an hour a day. I lost around 100 lbs originally, so that's a number I shoot for -- roughly 6 or 7 hours a week. But that has to be something you organically build up to while being smart.
I’m in the UK but sadly nowhere near the water. Thank you for the pointer towards rowing videos - I’ll check them out and use until I find a decent trainer. My last trainer (in London) was a rowing enthusiast and after a year of rowing and generally working out with him I didn’t suffer any injuries. I miss him!
Interesting study. Exercise is very important for me too and also because it allows me to eat more and maintain once I get to goal weight!
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what makes you think you have a slow metabolism?
15 years of yo yo dieting and, lately, limited exercise! I have actually been limiting my calories - I eat between 1200 and 1400 calories and still struggle to lose weight. I count all calories so I’m certain that is the range I fall into. I cannot further reduce my calories so exercise makes sense to boost my metabolism and lose weight.0
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